Jones said that he wanted to meet with Principal Scott Casebolt to discuss the issue, but Casebolt didn’t meet with him and Jones wasn’t allowed on school property, instead staying on sidewalks, per police order.

Jones also wanted to meet with students who were boarding buses behind the school, but was denied by police after walking on the sidewalk along Rotunda, then Pelham Road to the parking lot gate.

He also was denied the opportunity to carry a handgun. When an officer saw it as Jones was on a sidewalk in front of the school before the rally started, he made the Gainesville, Fla., resident return it to the car he parked in front of a house on Woodside Street, just east of Pelham.

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The rally featuring Jones and his associate, Wayne Sapp, was scheduled to run from 1 to 4 p.m. They arrived at about 12:50 p.m. and left at about 2:20 p.m. after they were denied entrance into the back parking lot by police.

“This is about all we can do,” Jones said. “It’s all blocked off. We’ve done about all we can do for now.”

Officers escorted Jones and Sapp across Pelham to their car.

During the rally, about 10 people stood with Jones and Sapp in support of them in front of the school; a like number of protesters were kept about 25 yards away, behind barriers. They held signs and chanted things like “Stay away from our kids” and “Terry Jones go home.”

On his supporters’ signs were sayings like “Islam the new Nazism,” “Shariah law is evil,” “Islam is a bully” and “Don’t be a victim.”

Numerous Dearborn police officers, along with Wayne County sheriff’s deputies and Michigan State Police troopers, were on school and other nearby properties and patrolling along Rotunda and Pelham.

Students were told before classes dismissed at 2:15 p.m. that they would not be allowed to go to their lockers or use restrooms after the final hour ended, and they were to leave the school through the west doors facing the student parking lot. After-school activities on campus were canceled.

A few passing motorists hurled insults at Jones.

He said that Muslims need to obey and respect laws of communities, and “Islam is not a religion that tolerates any criticism.”

“It’s a free society,” Jones said.

He said that he’s been contacted by parents of Edsel Ford students about their children being bullied by Muslim students, including one who emailed him about an incident in May where their son, who is black, was suspended. She said that Arabic students called their son a racial slur several times and when he fought back, he was suspended but the Muslim students were not. The parent also wrote that their daughter, who is a middle-school cheerleader was harassed for showing too much skin while in uniform when her team visited Salina Intermediate School.

“That community is being favored,” Jones said. “Very little is being done when the occasions of bullying are taking place.”

Nicole Bruesch of Dearborn, whose daughter is an 11th-grader at Edsel Ford, came to the rally in support of Jones. She said that her daughter hasn’t been bullied, but others have, and that Muslim students act up in the lunchroom, push and shove in hallways and drive poorly — “almost like it is their school and they’re the only ones there.”

“I’m hoping that they listen, and they’ll listen to his point of view,” she said. “I think he has a right to speak.”

Bruesch added that her daughter was harassed by Muslim students at O.L. Smith Middle School, but Casebolt as principal there handled the problems well.

Another parent, Linda Brazier, stopped Jones as he was walking to the back parking lot gate and said her son was harassed by Muslim students when he attended Stout Middle School, which is one of Edsel Ford’s feeders. She got him transferred to Bryant Middle School and he is now a Dearborn High School student.

“(Muslims) definitely got us outnumbered,” she said.

Jones said he found during his 30 years as a Christian missionary in Europe that Muslims have a difficult time integrating into communities, and that his children were harassed when they were there. He also said that as a Muslim community grows, it is more demanding.

He added that there is a “radical” element of Islam that is violent and bans free speech.

“The Quran does teach that the Muslims are the best of all people,” Jones said.

Jones and “Stand Up America!” agreed to promote the film “Innocence of Muslims,” which was made in California and mocks the Prophet Muhammad. The trailer, which was posted on YouTube, triggered riots in several countries outside the United States, some fatal.

Jones said that he’s had more than 400 death threats, and there are bounties of about $6.4 million on his life. He’s been banned from England and Germany, and an arrest warrant has been issued against him in Egypt.

He and Sapp were planning to attend what was billed as a “pro-freedom event” to promote “Innocence of Muslims” Thursday in Toronto.

Jones said that he would be willing to sit down and talk with Muslim leaders, but also said that he takes an “in your face” approach when necessary.